I currently have Comcast and utilize a bunch of their hi-def stations through their HD set top box. It does both standard and hi-def programming. It has RGB out to the Mits TV which has RGB in. Now, I want to put the new standalone Hi-def TiVo in the middle of that stream. From what I'm seeing, this isn't going to be an option right? Will the Hi-Def standalone NOT be able to record a hi-def stream from my Comcast hi-def cable box?

Originally posted by Greyhawk68 I currently have Comcast and utilize a bunch of their hi-def stations through their HD set top box. It does both standard and hi-def programming. It has RGB out to the Mits TV which has RGB in. Now, I want to put the new standalone Hi-def TiVo in the middle of that stream. From what I'm seeing, this isn't going to be an option right? Will the Hi-Def standalone NOT be able to record a hi-def stream from my Comcast hi-def cable box?

A couple things... no HD standalone TiVo has been announced. But no, it would not be able to record the stream as you would like to use it. The reason is that there is no inexpensive solution to encode HD resolutions in MPEG2, so the only things the HD TiVo is able to record are things already MPEG2 encoded, which means DirecTV or OTA broadcasts from ATSC digital stations.

There is an emerging cable decoder standard that might make it practical for TiVo to build a standalone HD device that could work with cable systems, but that standard isn't finalized (technically, though for practical purposes it is), and requires the cable systems to support it, and none of that is going to happen quickly.

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Now if you had a video display device that has one DVI/HDCP input and one HDMI....and plan on getting a DVD player with a HDMI output (Pioneer 59AVi)....who would you allot the HDMI input and who would get the DVI input on the video display.

Does one sacrafice any picture quality when you use a DVI to HDMI cable....instead of a pure HDMI to HDMI or DVI to DVI cable ?

And I presume you can flip flop the cable....and instead of using DVI from sat receiver to HDMI on video display....you can use HDMI on sat receiver to DVI on Video display?

If I upgrade to the HD DirecTV/TiVo...am I stuck with a fairly new and in pristine condition HD300 sat receiver. Can one sell these units even though it is registered at DirecTV in my name ??

And it seems all the HD DirecTV have little quirks and foibles....how could I sell it without someone wanting to return back to me.....because of a quirk that the whole line of HD300s have ??

Although I'm sure it varies a lot depending on where you live, most (maybe all?) of my local stations here in Atlanta multicast an SD feed with the HD feed in the digital signal. So in such a case, you'd be able to choose whether to record SD or HD. I don't watch that much stuff on the broadcast networks - I don't even look at that part of the guide very often, so I'm not sure if that's the case with ALL of the stations. In the case where the original program is not HD, I'll prefer to watch it on the SD feed, because they don't normally zoom the SD feed to fill the screen height (so there are borders all around). My TV doesn't let me zoom HD feeds (and I don't think my receiver does either).

Originally posted by Archangel Now if you had a video display device that has one DVI/HDCP input and one HDMI....and plan on getting a DVD player with a HDMI output (Pioneer 59AVi)....who would you allot the HDMI input and who would get the DVI input on the video display.

Does one sacrafice any picture quality when you use a DVI to HDMI cable....instead of a pure HDMI to HDMI or DVI to DVI cable ?

And I presume you can flip flop the cable....and instead of using DVI from sat receiver to HDMI on video display....you can use HDMI on sat receiver to DVI on Video display?

The video signals present on a DVI cable are identical to the same on an HDMI; it's purely a pin-to-pin cable. There's no loss whatsoever between DVI-HDMI, DVI-DVI, or HDMI-HDMI.

HDMI is just a smaller connector and also has digital audio signals.

HDMI-DVI cables aren't directional; you can use them in either direction.

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I know programming is in a constant state of flux, but if people don't pay attention they might think they are going to get NBA TV on DirecTV in HD with their new receiver. They stopped giving NBA TV HD to us when we started paying for HD.

Of course, Dish has it, probably the only time in recent memory they have really one-upped DirecTV on HD programming.

There aren't even enough details to know who is at fault, the NBA, DirecTV, or a combination of the 2.

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MattRelax, its only TV. . .then what am I doing wasting time on a forum like this and spending hundreds of dollars on glorified VCR's?

DirecTV e-mail or phone acts completely clueless when you ask them about anything having to do with OTA and DirecTV receivers. So why is this so hard to understand? They are lucky to have all the stations in my area in my guide (they actually still don't for stations that have been up for months), I don't expect them to have guide data 100% correct either, and they sure as heck don't. Once channel has no guide data still.

And at least on the Samsung TS160, you scan one direction you lose your previous scans so the box has no clue about antenna rotors either. The HDDTivo probably won't either.

I'll decide if I want to delete the channels from previous scans, ok?

Quote:

Originally posted by dswallow I do not understand this "total lack of guide data" argument. I have full guide data for every HD channel in the program guide on my DirecTV HD receiver. That includes all NYC and Philadelphia stations.

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MattRelax, its only TV. . .then what am I doing wasting time on a forum like this and spending hundreds of dollars on glorified VCR's?

Originally posted by feldon23 That's a recurring nightmare on HD receivers. The inability to add/delete channels manually and/or keep channels from previous scans.

That's how the built-in tuner acted when I got my Hitachi a year ago, but someone requested that it be changed and guess what...Hitachi upgraded the software to allow you to tune in a digital channel directly and if it detects a signal, it will add it to the lineup! A few months ago I requested the the upgraded which they sent on an MMC card and I upgraded the software in my TV. I love saying that...

Will Directv ever offer the network channels in hd and if so, when? I'm frustrated by the fact that I live in the hills of LA and can't get HD even with a boosted channelmaster antenna. I don't want the local digital cable and I'm hoping Directv will offer it sometime.

Lack of unscrambled QAM support is a dissapointment, as I am unable to receive the local channels over the air (big hill between me and the towers, too much interference), yet our cable company offers all but one as unscrabled QAM signals on their most basic cable tier...

Although I doubt you'll see a "national feed", I'd expect to see something like we have today (distant NY/LA locals) for those who qualify. I also expect to see HD locals, at least for the major markets, within the next couple of years. Sure, there's some pain in the interim, but I do believe it's coming.

I was just looking over last year's CES announcement on the HD DirecTV/TiVo. I was wondering what was the real reason that it is taking now 12 months...and probably another 2 or so before we can actually touch a working unit.

Was it just a concept on paper back in January 2003 and they announced too early ?
Or were there just so many unanticipated technical hurdles ?

Thanks for the excellent summary Feldon. You covered all those combinations of recording OTA and DirecTV channels simultaneously, which probably answers a question I've had for a while. I remember someone speculating a while back that regardless of how many tuners it had, it wouldn't be able to record two HD channels at the same time. But if the OTA channels can only be digital, I'd have to assume that it can.

I also think we'll start to see HD locals rolled out within the next few years. They've been adding more and more markets, even when they had to start carrying ALL the local network channels for each market. Hopefully it'll happen before they switch back to the normal channel numbers and my UHF-only antenna doesn't work any more.

Originally posted by Archangel I was wondering what was the real reason that it is taking now 12 months

Although I haven't looked at that announcement in a long time, IIRC, even back then it wasn't expected until 4th qtr 2003. The story I've heard is that it's late because at the time of CES last year, it was not planned to be able to record two streams at one time. Those of us who have gotten used to two tuners made a big stink about it, so they had to do some redesign to add tuners and enable it to handle the bandwidth to process two HD streams at once (at the time of CES last year, they indicated bandwidth was the issue). So all things considered, I don't think it's THAT late.

feldon23 said...DirecTV HD TiVos have a switch on the front of the unit allowing you to control the output format being sent over the Component outputs to suit the capabilities of your HDTV. This setting cannot be changed with the remote control.

Feldon, where did you hear that part about not being able to switch output formats with the remote? I've heard the opposite.

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BrettThe risk I took was calculated. But man, I am really bad at math.

Originally posted by dfusfeld I'm someone with no HD in any form - YET, so forgive me if this is a dumb question, but why would you even need to do this? Wouldn't you set your output format once and be done?

In an ideal world, yes, you'd probably do this, or actually you might prefer to have the output automatically switch to whatever the source material actually is, avoiding any circuitry in the receiver that converts it from one resolution to another (presumably because you have some other device that does a better job at this).

But in the real world, a lot of monitors are unable to manipulate (stretch or zoom) a 720p or 1080i signal. So someone desiring to zoom in on a letterboxed 4:3 signal to fill their 16:9 display, or to stretch the 4:3 signal across their 16:9 display can only do so when the signal coming into the display is 480i or 480p.

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Another reason would be if you had a high-end CRT display that could do multiple HD resolutions natively. If your projector could do both 720p and 1080i natively, then you'd want to output 720p for ABC and ESPN (and Fox later this year), but 1080i for the others. This would prevent any quality loss from converting to another resolution.

But most of us have display devices that can only display one or the other natively, so it's usually set once and left alone.

I will need to be able to do this in order to be able to properly output to my channel modulator, which supplies up to 4 different things to other TVs in my house. There are IR extenders that send remote control signals back to the devices from those rooms, making it easy to watch anything from any Tivo from any room in the house.

Unfortunately, the HD-Tivo will not output on the analog outputs while set to output a HD signal, so I'll need a way to switch to an analog output in order to watch something on a TV somewhere other than my main TV.

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BrettThe risk I took was calculated. But man, I am really bad at math.

Theres no need for simultansous output now, as the reason for that (or one of the reasons) is so that you could record HD or regular rpogramming off of a HD rec onto a TiVo w/o switching the output manually.

Theres no need for simultansous output now, as the reason for that (or one of the reasons) is so that you could record HD or regular rpogramming off of a HD rec onto a TiVo w/o switching the output manually.

Theres no need for simultansous output now, as the reason for that (or one of the reasons) is so that you could record HD or regular rpogramming off of a HD rec onto a TiVo w/o switching the output manually.